Maurice Quain. By Morley Roberts. (Hutchinson and Co.)- Quain, the
principal figure in this story, is a type that will excite the sympathy of many readers. A strong, clever, but ill- balanced man, whose eccentricity and impatient pride completely bar his prospects of permanent work and fame, the fascination of London holds him like a vice. On one of his nightly rowing expeditions he rescues from the river a would-be suicide, a woman who changes his life and brings the element of love and hope into it. Quain's character and his peculiar mental state is quite a masterpiece of descriptive analysis, and as a sort of running accompaniment to this solo we have some Dantean im- pressions of the gloom and murk and intensity of life in the great city. These are wonderfully picturesque, and with a great command of chiaroscuro, but highly fanciful and fantastical. Quain's wife is a capital character, and a very human, loving woman. Fox, the potato merchant, with his curious mixture of trade speculations and generous hospitality and tenderness, is one of the characters that is a distinct creation; we must con- gratulate Morley Roberts on his appearance. Potato merchant though be is, he is a beautiful character. The very mixed collection of people under Fox's roof provide the author with plenty of humorous material and some capital scenes. But, indeed, every figure moves with real life in these pages. No one can draw strong and weak characters with a keener eye to con- trast than Morley Roberts. Maurice Quain is a very clever piece of work, and shows the author's grasp of character and insight into human nature unmistakeably.
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